Did you notice it? Did you see that the look of my blog changed? It may sound silly to some of you but I am so happy with it. My friend Eva is a digi-wizard and she created the background and banner (with Rhonna Farrer digifiles) within a few minutes for me. Isn't that awesome!? Thanks again Eva!!!

Today it's Ad's birthday, as of now he's officially a 38 years old. We don't celebrate it today though, as his party is next week but we will make sure he has a great day. Unfortunately Kelsey isn't at home with us because she has a birthdayparty of one of her best friends (this was actually the reason why we didn't plan on celebrating Ad's birthday today in the first place). But tonight Kylian and I will cook Ad's favorite dish called Roti. Kylian has been ready for cooking with me for a few days now as he has been wearing his own cooking apron ever since I said it was okay for him to help me with cooking. This morning we woke up early and sang at our best for Ad and even said out loud hip hip hurray 38 times. We lost Kylian somewhere in the middle of the 38 times cause he got tired and made the funny remark that he really hopes that daddy won't get 100 years old because he would get really really tired than ;) Oh gosh ... this little dude makes those funny remarks all the time. Anyway, both the kids made a little something for Ad to give today because he won't be getting his real gift from us for another week and in the meantime I will do the best I can to tease him and pick his curiousity for what he's getting from us ;)

This week I've been tagged by my sweet friend Nancy. It's such a fun tag!!!! It's "Photo" Tagging! RULES: Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures. Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

This is the 6th picture in the 6th folder on my computer. It's a picture which was taken on December the 5th 2004 on Saint Nicolas Day. The kids put their shoe out the evening before and like with all the other days they were surprised that they got something in their shoes. Isn't that cute, talking about cute ..... do you see how little they were on the picture. Look at them, what a difference, sob sob ..... they really do get big. Kylian stopped "believing" in Saint Nicolas and I've really missed it this year. The whole Saint Nicolas period was gone before we knew it. So sad!

On Wednesdayafternoon Kelsey and Kylian had a friend staying over at our place. Earlier this week I promised them to make some cards, so we sat down behind my desk. I made a sample for them. So the first step was to pick some pieces of paper from my box with leftovers. The picking paper part didn't go too well, ofcourse they all wanted the same pieces of paper that the other just found, but about 15 minutes later they were satisfied so we could start. They seem to know exactly what they wanted and where they had seen it before on my pages. Kelsey (ofcourse) wanted bling and butterfly paper and Kylian told me he wanted "taw buttons". I had to think really hard for this one as at first I had no idea what he meant to say but when I showed him a layout with "taw buttons" that was what he had in mind indeed. Kelsey made a card voor a little friend who just got a little sister and Kylian made a card for Ad, who has his 38th birthday tomorrow.

This morning as I was photographing these cards for the kids, I wanted to sit down and make a few cards as well. Valentines Day is coming up and Ad and the kids love a homemade card and whilst I was at it I also made a card for the parents of Kelsey little friend who just had a baby girl. And you know what I liked it so much, I just might make some more cards this evening. I hardly ever make cards but I need to do this more often cause I finally seem to get rid off my scraps.

In March last year I spend a weekend in Texel with a few scrapping friends. While we were scrapping we kind of talked about starting up our own scrapchallengeblog. But you know how it goes, once you're at home you just forget about it all. Until a few weeks ago. I have to admit, I really didn't give them much choice *LOL* . See I said "girls, you are going to vote for me on the dare to use color blog or else I will force you into setting up our own challengeblog". Guess what they said, well we won't vote for you than cause we stil like that idea of our own scrapchallengeblog. And with this today the us DUS blog has gone live. 2 Times a month we will post a new challenge with our samples and if you participate you can even win a price and ofcourse you have 2 chances if you do both challenges.

I've been busy this weekend with setting up the us DUS blog so I haven't really had the time to scrap, but I am happy to say that I finally finished a layout that I started on 2 weeks ago. I had a crop with the girls of the dare to use color team at the Scrapheap in Sprang-Capelle. I haven''t been there before but I will surely go back there more often (I am so sorry Ad).

This morning the results of the search for the 2 new designteam members for the dare to use color blog were posted. And to make a long story short, I am in!!! I totally didn't expect it anymore, but I am totally excited about it. Thanks to those that took the time to vote for me, it's appreciated. I will do the best I can for you all.

Have a wonderful weekend. I have plans to spend the weekend scrapping as I just received some goodies that I ordered a little while ago, what about you!?

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Saw this on Danielle's blog and thought it was fun so I wanted to do this and encourage you to do this too ! Just copy and paste this entry and highlight the ones you've done.

1. Started your own blog.2. Slept under the stars.3. Played in a band.4. Visited Hawaii.5. Watched a meteor shower.6. Given more that you can afford to charity.7. Been to Disneyland (in Paris).8. Held a praying mantis.9. Climbed a mountain.10. Sang a solo (does singing in the shower every day or Karaoke count too, cause than yes).11. Bungee jumped.12. Visited Paris.13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (yes, that is if scrapbooking is an art).15. Adopted a child.16. Had food poisoning.17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.18. Grown your own vegetables.19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.20. Slept on an overnight train.21. Had a pillow fight.22. Hitch hiked.23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill.24. Built a snow fort.25. Held a lamb.26. Gone skinny dipping.27. Run a marathon.28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.29. Seen a total eclipse.30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.31. Hit a home run (yup on the Wii).32. Been on a cruise.33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.35. Seen an Amish community.36. Taught yourself a new language.37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.39. Gone rock climbing.40. Seen Michelangelo's David.41. Sung karaoke.42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.44. Visited Africa.45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.46. Been transported in an ambulance.47. Had your portrait painted.48. Gone deep sea fishing.49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.52. Kissed in the rain.53. Played in the mud.54. Gone to a drive-in theater.55. Been in a movie.56. Visited the Great Wall of China.57. Started a business.58. Taken a martial arts class.59. Visited Russia.60. Served at a soup kitchen.61. Sold Girl Scouts Cookies.62. Gone whale watching.63. Got flowers for no reason.64. Donated blood, platelets of plasma.65. Gone sky diving.66. Visited a nazi concentration camp.67. Bounced a check.68. Flown in a helicopter.69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.71. Eaten caviar, and it's gross!72. Pieced a quilt.73. Stood in Times Square.74. Toured the Everglades.75. Been fired from a job.76. Seen the changing of the Guards in London.77. Broken a bone (actually I broke a lot of bones a lot of times).78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.80. Published a book.81. Visited the Vatican.82. Bought a brand new car.83. Walked in Jerusalem.84. Had your picture in the newspaper.85. Read the entire bible.86. Visited the White House.87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.88. Had chickenpox.89. Saved someone's life.90. Sat on a jury.91. Met someone famous.92. Joined a book club.93. Lost a loved one.94. Had a baby.95. Seen the Alamo in person.96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.97. Been involved in a law suit.98. Owned a cellphone.99. Been stung by a bee.100. read an entire book in one day (yup even one that had 890 pages in it).

Just about everyone we know went iceskating this weekend, and we did too in between all the other stuff that we had to do. We've been a busy bunch and hardly were at home. Thank goodness it's a little different next weekend. On Saturdaymorning Kelsey had gymnastics practice in Eindhoven. After that we went iceskating for a little while and in the evening we went to my fathers birthdayparty. We had a great time there, so we went home later than we actually planned to. Luckily though the kids could go to bed at their place. Sundaymorning we picked them up really early since Kelsey had a gymnastics match and Kylian had a swimming class. Her gymnastics match went quite well. We know that she won't win a first prize for now since she comes out against girls that are doing this a year or even 2 longer, but we cherish each little step up that she takes and this time she had a better score than with the other match. She ended up at the 7th spot out of 9 girls. After the match we rushed home, had lunch and than went to the park to go iceskating again. Kylian was now brave enough to put on his iceskates and wanted to learn iceskating too. The strange part is that he knows how to rollerblade but for some reason he couldn't do the same thing on the iceskates. He even got so frustated that he pulled his hat all over his face and sat like that for like 10 minutes. After this he gave it another try but he thought it was just too difficult. Well maybe we have to take a step back with him and buy him different skates, you know the kind with 2 blades. He had lots of fun with the sledge and daddy though. A few of Kelseys schoolmates were playing ice hockey with one of their dads and they asked Kelsey if she wanted to play as well. She wasn't deaf for that request and she had a blast. When we went home again she told us that she wanted to buy a icehockey stick with the money that she got for her birthday.

Wednesday afternoon Kelsey came home from school and told me that on Fridayafternoon they would go iceskating with school. If I could go out shopping and get her a pair of iceskates. She already mentioned the iceskating earlier in the week but she wasn't sure yet if it was really going to happen so I had high hopes it would fall through but unfortunately it didn't. She didn't go iceskating before (well how could she since it's the first time in her life that she could iceskate on the pond we have here). And well, the 2 times that she went iceskating happened on a birthdayparty and she had to learn it behind a little rack, so I can't call that iceskating. So needless to say I was really worried for her, therefor I was happy I could change her mind and told her to go on the ice with her shoes on instead. But on Fridaymorning she came to me with the saddest face ever and asked me to please reconsider and get her the iceskates anyway since all the other girls in her class had iceskates too. Well to make a long story short I fell for it and went out shopping with my mom. Any idea how difficult it is to get iceskates right now? It was quite the task, but after a whole lot of stores we found not only a pair in the right size for Kelsey but also for Kylian and those were the last ones they had too. We were so lucky! The smile on her (and later Kylian's) face was worth it, it made me think of that Mastercard commercial were a parent spend a whole lot of money to see a smile on his kids face, priceless. Well that was the same thing here, that and the fact that she better should go iceskating for as long as it's possible, just to make my effort worth it ;)

A little after Kelsey went to school I went to the park were they would go iceskating and I was right in time to see her coming in after her first round. Some of the kids were showing off about the 4th round that they did but Kelsey couldn't care less. She loved it and asked me if I could stay till after she did all of the 11 rounds that she was supposed to do. I stayed with her until she went back to school but oh boy did I regret that. I was freezing cold and couldn't feel my toes anymore. I couldn't be more happy to see Ad who stopped by to see if she was still iceskating and asked him to put my bike in the back of the car and take me home with him.

The past 3 months I've participated in the dare to use color designteam search and now the time has come to make a choice between me and the other 3 girls that participated. There are only 2 of us that will make it to the team. The choice will be partially made by the readers/visitors of the blog and partially by the current team. They've made a poll for the readers/visitors of the blog and I would really appreciate it if you could visit the DTUC blog and placed your vote. The poll is on the upper corner on the left side.

Hier zijn de 3 layoutjes die ik heb gemaakt naar aanleiding van de challenges. Here are the 3 layouts that I did based on their challenges.

Hier is een link naar het werk van de andere meiden. Here is a link to the work of the other girls.

First of all I wanted to start with wising you all the best for 2009, hope it will be a happy, healthy, cozy and creative year. Hope you had a wonderful new years celebration. We spend it happily singing (Singstar) and guitarplaying (Guitar Hero) with family (14 alltogether). After 12 o'clock we went outside and made a huge fire (which was also kept going by neighbors) where we stayed until around half past 2. We had a wonderful time, a good start in the new year. Hope it is a sign of all the goods things that we hope will happen this year.

A new year, a new round, new chances and therefor a new blog here at Blogspot. The old blog will be online until March or April, but if you want to stay updated than you should follow this one as of now. I am still trying to figure out how this works here at Blogspot but I hope to

get the hang of it really soon and if all else fails I will come to all of you Blogspotters for some advice.

One of the biggest changes is that I am planning to blog in 2 languages. Dutch and English as some of my familymembers and friends told me regularly they had trouble reading in English (or is it just because of my English???) Anyway, especially for you guys in Dutch too. I have to say though now I expect something from you in return. Leave me comment from time to time.